The Marauder's Christmas Chronicles
by Lorelei Lupin
Summary: Christmas at Hogwarts for the Marauders! I'm hoping to get all seven years, maybe one or two afterwards as well.
1. Year One: Friendships Formed

A/N:  The Christmas Season has encouraged me to write a Marauders Christmas fic, enjoy!

The Christmas Chronicles:  The Marauders are Formed 

            It was Christmas Eve of their first year at Hogwarts and James Potter and his best friend Sirius Black stumbled into the Common Room laughing.  They've only known each other since running into each other on the train on 1 September, but already, by December they were best friends and acted like brothers.

            Sirius had received a letter from his parents asking him to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays, so James decided to write to his parents asking permission to stay as well.  His parents reluctantly gave in, even though James had to say that he was going to "study".  "Study making Slytherins' lives miserable once they get back, more like it," James had said to Sirius, causing them both to erupt into a fit of laughter.

            Everybody at Hogwarts respected, feared, or hated the pair.  They were respected for their talents, and they, along with Lily Evans, always had top marks in all of their classes.  Most of the Slytherins hated and feared them, though none would admit to the latter, but fully expressed the former.  One of which was Severus Snape, who had earned getting on their hit list on the first day of school when he accidentally slipped in Potions and spilled their brew.

            Somehow, four out of the six Gryffindor boys had managed to stay behind at Hogwarts, the elusive Remus Lupin and the quiet and odd Peter Pettigrew.  Remus was on the couch with his head immersed in a large book, he sat back a little further into the large arm chair at the entry of the two loud boys.

            "Lupin," Sirius began, "do you do anything other than read and visit your sick relatives?"

            "Yes," Remus replied a bit uncomfortably.

            "How'd you get stuck here?" Sirius began, "parents don't like you either.  Don't worry, it's the same with me.  Or is it too likely that you'll catch some unearthly incurable disease like the rest of your family?"

            "No," Remus answered, "I just didn't feel like going home."

            "I would have thought your sick relatives would _want _to see you," James said, joining Sirius in the fun.

            "Or do they enjoy winter alone?" Sirius asked.

            "No," Remus answered blankly.

            "You really need to have some fun, you're coming with us tonight," James decided after a moment of silence.

            "James!" Sirius protested, "should we really risk that?" he whispered.

            "Why not?" James said, "it's not during real school, so we shouldn't get in too much trouble if he squeals.  He's too quiet to squeal, anyway."

            "Do you enjoy talking about people as if they're not there?" Remus said coldly.

            "Yes, actually we do," Sirius answered. 

            "See?" James began, "he could be one of us, with training of course."

            "What do you plan on doing?" Remus asked, mildly more interested.

            "Are you any good at Transfiguring?" Sirius asked with an evil grin.

            "Somewhat, why?"

            "Let us teach you something," James said with a grin that match Sirius's.

            And so for the next hour they taught Remus how to transfigure cloth into coal.  Luckily, Remus caught on quickly, and they were done sooner than either James or Sirius had thought.

            "No First-Year should be able to do this," Remus said to them, once he had mastered it.

            "Well, we're not any First-Years, now are we?" Sirius answered, forcing himself to sit up straighter.  James poked his side and Sirius fell forward laughing.

            "We'll leave at midnight," Sirius said.  "If you're asleep, we'll wake you up, but you're coming with us."

            They ate dinner as normal, only this time Remus sat with Sirius and James instead of by himself.  Peter was still alienated at the Gryffindor table.  Only a few Slytherins remained, Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, a Fifth-Year, his girlfriend, Narcissa Black, Sirius's cousin and a Fourth-Year, and Malfoy's goons, Crabbe and Goyle, who were both Fifth-Years as well.  A few scattered Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs stayed as well, but they were of little importance to the pranksters.  The Hufflepuffs had always been nice to them, and the Ravenclaws were always helpful, and they stayed out of the way.

            After going to bed, James and Sirius waited up until each of their synchronised watches read 12:00 midnight.  They sat up at the same time, looking like each boy was the mirror of the other.  Sirius went to Lupin's bed to try to awake the sleeping boy.  He shook Remus gently and whispered, "Come on, wake up!"

            "What?" came from the other side of the room.  It was Peter Pettigrew.  "What are you guys doing?"

            "If we let you tag along, promise you'll never tell anyone?" James asked.

            "Yes, I promise," the boy answered.

            "Do you swear on pain of death?" Sirius added.

            "I swear!" he exclaimed.

            "Okay, come along then," Sirius said reluctantly.  

            They made their way unseen through the halls and down the stairs and to the dungeons.  At the bottom of the stairwell, Sirius whispered to James, seeing as the other boys were slightly behind, "Just invite all of Gryffindor, why don't you?"

            "If they squeal, we'll just point out that we're first years, and we can't do that stuff yet, anyways, it's Christmas Eve, and they had nothing better to do," James pointed out.

            "Fine.  If they screw up, we're totally never inviting them to tag along again."  Sirius tapped on the wall to find the hollow spot and then counted ten bricks from the bottom, and ten from the right of a portrait hanging on the wall.  He knocked on that brick three times, and the wall opened up.  James and Sirius entered, beckoning the other two boys forward.  They climbed down even lower and stopped in front of a wall.  

            "Say 'hullo' to the Slytherin boys' dormitory," James said before pushing the wall open.  He went to the door marked _First Years_ and opened it up.

            "Pettigrew, you stay on the lookout.  Knock on the door if anybody comes and hide yourself," James whispered to Peter.

            "Lupin, we're going to find little Snapey's bed, and make use of that charm on his drapes," Sirius whispered to Remus. 

            The three boys with their wands out went found Snape's bed and took over the task of transfiguring the hangings on his bed to blocks of coal.  

            They silently crept up the stairs to the Common Room of the Slytherins.

            "Woah," Peter said, "whose are all these?" he said, referring to a large pile of presents.

            "I don't know, let's check," James said, picking up one of the packages.  In sparkling gold lettering it read _Lucius Malfoy_.

            "There's got to be a lot of nice stuff here.  His family's extravagantly rich, I'm sure he wouldn't mind of some of it was missing," Sirius said with a cruel grin.

            "That's stealing!" Remus pointed out.

            "Borrowing," James corrected, "we'll give it back, it just may end up looking slightly different."

            They each carefully unwrapped two small presents and took the contents for themselves.  Sirius put all of the wrapper into the fire and left in to burn, urging the other three boys out of the dormitory.

            They made it out of the dungeons, but were unexpectedly met on the staircase by Professor Dumbledore.

            "Good morning, boys," he said with a twinkle in his eyes.  "You wouldn't be out marauding this early on Christmas, would you?" he asked suspiciously.

            "Of course not, sir," Sirius said with a bright smile.  "We just wanted to stretch, since we're so used to getting up to see what Santa has brought us at our homes."

            "Of course," Dumbledore said.  "Well, run up to your dormitories, we've got a nice Christmas feast tomorrow, wouldn't want you boys too tired to properly enjoy it."

            "Yes, sir," James said, leading the boys dashing up the staircase, trying to repress his laughter.  Once inside the portrait hole, Sirius and James collapsed on the floor in fits of laughter and Remus and Peter couldn't help to join in.

            "Think he knew?" Remus asked worriedly.

            "Yeah, I think, when he said," James trailed off in thought, "wait, that's it!  That's it!  We are now, officially, The Marauders.  From now on, we shall prank together."

            Sirius grinned, "Happy Christmas, fellow Marauders, now we've got to figure what to do with Malfoy's gifts!"  They all erupted into laughter once more, before hiding their treasure and retreating to their dormitories.

THE END!


	2. Year Two: The North Pole

A/N:  Part Two of the Christmas Chronicles as I "sleep" waiting for Santa and watching Dralion!  (I LOVE Cirque du Soleil)  Please read Year One, if I don't decide to make this chaptered out, it explains a few things.

Christmas Chronicles:  Year Two—In Which the Marauders Visit the North Pole 

****

            It was Christmas holidays in their second year, and again, the four Gryffindor boys Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were all staying at Hogwarts for the second year in a row, the first in which they all became friends in pranking, and established themselves as the Marauders.

            "Are we going to do the same thing we did last year?" Remus asked the other boys after coming back from lunch on Christmas Eve and they were alone in the Common Room.

            "Yes," Sirius began, "it's an official tradition, as of…last year."

            "Remember Malfoy's gift-backs?" James said with a laugh.  "I found a spell to make this ring that his father gave him eat away at his skin.  And remember the blonding hair potion, his hair was changing shades of purple and pink for weeks before he realised that it was what was making his hair change colours."

            "I broke his broom," Peter said, "and I can't remember what else."

            "Oh, what was it?" Sirius said to himself.  "I can't remember either, but I turned his gift box of perfumes and soaps and crap like that into urine.  And I made his box of chocolate frogs try to eat him instead!"

            "That was great," James said, "tried to open one in the Great Hall, had him running through the halls for hours until one of the professors took pity on him and uncharmed the frog."

            "I just filled his new clothes with moths, and a hat he got with lice," Remus said, finally putting his book down.

            "Anyway, back to business," Sirius said once they had all finished laughing, "we're going to do it again tonight, everything, except this time we're not going to get caught."

            "We haven't gotten caught since James's father sent him that nifty cloak," Remus pointed out.

            "Yes, I know, but it happened last time, it could happen again," Sirius said.

            "Well, at least we didn't get in trouble," James pointed out, "and we got our nifty name though being caught."

            "Right you are James," Sirius began, "but, we needn't a nifty name, now do we?  And we don't want to risk getting in trouble again, do we?"

            "Very true," James answered.

            They made it through dinner acting perfectly normal, and even into bed in their dormitories.  At midnight, the four of them sat up simultaneously, as they had set their watches to each other's.  James got his cloak and they piled under it, on their way down to the dungeons.

            They made it down the stair cases and to the dungeons with no difficulty, even if they hadn't the cloak.  They found the right brick, tapped it three times, and were dashing down the staircases.  Peter suddenly stopped.

            "Hey, look.  It's a painting, I can't tell of what though," Peter exclaimed.

            "Shush!  We'll come back this way, and we can look at it, I don't ever remember a painting being here," Sirius told him.

            "To work now," James whispered as they approached the Second Year Dormitories, "same jobs.  Sirius, Remus, and I will transfigure the drapes to coal, and Peter you look out."

            The four boys nodded and went to work.  It took relatively no time, and they were up the stairs to snatch some of Malfoy's gifts to "improve".

            As Sirius promised to Peter, they took the secret passageway back and stopped to look at the painting.

            "_Lumos!_" James whispered.  In the painting, snow was falling freely, and they could make out a large house, leading up to the door was what looked like oversized candy canes."

            "They just look like you could eat them," Peter said, grabbing at one of the candy canes.  All of a sudden, Peter shrunk and appeared in the painting.  He looked around frantically in the painting.

            "Brilliant," James whispered, "I'm going next," he said, jumping into the painting.  Sirius grabbed Remus's wrist and followed.

            "Where are we?" Peter asked.

            "The north pole, dummy," James said, pointing at a sign that read 'The North Pole'.

            "Oooh," Peter answered stupidly.    "It's cold," he complained, "can't we go inside, it has to be warm!"

            "I don't see any harm," Sirius answered.

            "Sirius," Remus began, "you wouldn't see any harm in riding a rampaging hippogriff right into the Minister of Magic.

            "James would help me!" Sirius protested, "it's an interesting idea, anyway."

            James laughed and led the way up to the old house and knocked on the door.

            "Hello?" a small voice greeted them.  The four boys looked down to see a small elf.  "Shouldn't you boys be in bed, asleep?  Waiting for Santa?"

            "Erm, that's the thing," James began, "you see, we were…putting out milk and cookies for Santa, and we saw this really pretty painting, and Peter here," he said, gesturing to the plump boy with light brown hair, "had to stupidly touch it, and we got sent here."

            "Oh, right.  You'd be Hogwarts boys, wouldn't you?" the elf asked.  The four boys nodded.  "Come in, then.  Mr. Claus should be restocking any time now.  He'll get you back home safely."

            "I thought there was no such thing as Santa?" Sirius whispered to James.

            "Very interesting point," the elf answered.  "A long while a go, there was a boy, Nyassus Malfoy, and he was never good, always cruel and malicious, ever since the day he was born.  Well, of course, he got coal, like all bad boys did at that time.  So his father began taking the coal out, and replacing them with large and elaborate gifts.  One night, the boy caught his father, the word was spread, and soon parents were expected leave the presents.  So now, Santa delivers only those families who truly believe, and those not fortunate enough to have a real Christmas."

            "Who are these boys?" asked a jolly voice from behind them.  Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter turned around to see Santa Claus standing there.

            It wasn't the regular department store-pillow-stuffed, fake-bearded man dressed up, it was the genuine Santa, with rosy red cheeks, plump and smiling.

            "I'm Sirius Black," Sirius said, "and this is James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew," he continued pointed to each of them in turn.

            "Well, what can I do for you boys?"

            "You can take us home, er, to Hogwarts, please, sir," James answered a bit quickly.

            "Hogwarts, tell me boys, what year are you in?"

            "Second," answered four voices.

            And House?

            "Gryffindor," they answered.

            "Right then, if you'll help me pack up my sleigh, we can get you back to school," Santa answered.

            "Thank you," they all said together.

            And they packed up the sleigh, and helped Santa deliver presents to people all over Europe before coming down the fireplace in Gryffindor Tower, though they all had to creep back down to the dungeons to get the Invisibility cloak.

            They, as always made it down there uncaught.  They wrapped the cloak around them and ran back up the stairs to the ground floor, and found the stair cases again, however running up the first flight, they ran into something—er, someone.  It was Dumbledore!  The boys ran around them, and heard him chuckle softly.

            "They were all breathing hard and laughing when they collapsed on the Common Room floor sprawled in different directions."

            "That is the last time we're getting caught!" James exclaimed once he could breathe without laughing.

            "I agree with you wholeheartedly." Sirius nodded.

            "But how?" Remus asked.

            "Maybe, some sort of map," James began, "and we can charm it so that it shows where everyone in the castle is.  It'll have all of Hogwarts on it."

            "And it shall be called," Sirius began dramatically standing up, "The Marauders Map."

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY, I HOPE EVERYBODY HAD A GOOD CHRISTMAS!


End file.
